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Star Citizen has been in development for a long, long time. Despite being worked on since 2012 and raising hundreds of millions of dollars, the space flight sim/MMO remains in an alpha state. With a clear timeline for content updates and an upcoming single-player game that appears to be incredibly interesting, the vision of what Star Citizen could be one day presents a tantalizing vision. There's honestly enough in the story of Star Citizen to do a full episode on it one day, but the current state of the game precludes that potential episode.
With schedules being what they are, sometimes coordinating a full episode of The Best Games Period can be difficult. When we can't have a proper discussion, we will be breaking off to do these shorter mini-casts, Honorable Mentions, to talk about fringe games that we might not otherwise be able to talk about on a full episode.
Outro music: Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun 'Partons à l'Aventure' by Sir_NutS (http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03896)
You can download or listen to the podcast over on Soundcloud, our hosting site, and iTunes. A YouTube version is available, as well!
If you want to have your opinion heard on air, share your opinion in the comments, follow the show on Twitter, and participate in the weekly polls: @BestGamesPeriod
New episodes of The Best Games Period will be released every Monday
Don't forget to sign up for Extra Life to help sick and injured kids in hospitals around the US and Canada by playing games!

Star Citizen has been in development for a long, long time. Despite being worked on since 2012 and raising hundreds of millions of dollars, the space flight sim/MMO remains in an alpha state. With a clear timeline for content updates and an upcoming single-player game that appears to be incredibly interesting, the vision of what Star Citizen could be one day presents a tantalizing vision. There's honestly enough in the story of Star Citizen to do a full episode on it one day, but the current state of the game precludes that potential episode.
With schedules being what they are, sometimes coordinating a full episode of The Best Games Period can be difficult. When we can't have a proper discussion, we will be breaking off to do these shorter mini-casts, Honorable Mentions, to talk about fringe games that we might not otherwise be able to talk about on a full episode.
Outro music: Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun 'Partons à l'Aventure' by Sir_NutS (http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR03896)
You can download or listen to the podcast over on Soundcloud, our hosting site, and iTunes. A YouTube version is available, as well!
If you want to have your opinion heard on air, share your opinion in the comments, follow the show on Twitter, and participate in the weekly polls: @BestGamesPeriod
New episodes of The Best Games Period will be released every Monday
Don't forget to sign up for Extra Life to help sick and injured kids in hospitals around the US and Canada by playing games!
View full article

Star Citizen has been in development for the past six years following a phenomenally successful Kickstarter campaign. The game has been envisioned and pitched as a spiritual successor to the Wing Commander series with modern sensibilities and a massively multiplayer galaxy. Though Star Citizen has received most of the media attention, the original Kickstarter was also for a single-player campaign set within the Star Citizen universe. That single player campaign was originally slated for release in 2014.
However, one thing that neither Cloud Imperium Games nor the fans who backed Star Citizen could have planned on was the massive and ongoing crowdfunding that has gone on since the initial success of the Kickstarter. To date, the company has raised well over $150 million from players who have fallen in love with the dream of what Star Citizen could be. With all of that extra money, the scope of both Star Citizen and Squadron 42 has expanded.
The new single-player game will have considerable star power, like Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, John Rhys-Davies, Mark Strong, Andy Serkis, and more high profile actors and actresses. The acting chops going into Squadron 42 is pretty astounding, even by blockbuster gaming standards. We get to see snippets of that throughout the trailer as Cloud Imperium also shows off their impressive game tech, interesting sci-fi universe, and proves that Squadron 42 still exists and will eventually release.
So it is that four years after the projected release date of Squadron 42 we are just now seeing an extended trailer full of gameplay and story (but still no release date).
Overall, the trailer is incredibly impressive and looks to be the next hard sci-fi experience on the horizon with a chip on its shoulder to tell a compelling narrative. Add on deep and engaging space combat, and you have a great recipe for something really special.
Don't forget to sign up for Extra Life to help sick and injured kids in hospitals around the US and Canada by playing games!
View full article

Star Citizen has been in development for the past six years following a phenomenally successful Kickstarter campaign. The game has been envisioned and pitched as a spiritual successor to the Wing Commander series with modern sensibilities and a massively multiplayer galaxy. Though Star Citizen has received most of the media attention, the original Kickstarter was also for a single-player campaign set within the Star Citizen universe. That single player campaign was originally slated for release in 2014.
However, one thing that neither Cloud Imperium Games nor the fans who backed Star Citizen could have planned on was the massive and ongoing crowdfunding that has gone on since the initial success of the Kickstarter. To date, the company has raised well over $150 million from players who have fallen in love with the dream of what Star Citizen could be. With all of that extra money, the scope of both Star Citizen and Squadron 42 has expanded.
The new single-player game will have considerable star power, like Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, John Rhys-Davies, Mark Strong, Andy Serkis, and more high profile actors and actresses. The acting chops going into Squadron 42 is pretty astounding, even by blockbuster gaming standards. We get to see snippets of that throughout the trailer as Cloud Imperium also shows off their impressive game tech, interesting sci-fi universe, and proves that Squadron 42 still exists and will eventually release.
So it is that four years after the projected release date of Squadron 42 we are just now seeing an extended trailer full of gameplay and story (but still no release date).
Overall, the trailer is incredibly impressive and looks to be the next hard sci-fi experience on the horizon with a chip on its shoulder to tell a compelling narrative. Add on deep and engaging space combat, and you have a great recipe for something really special.
Don't forget to sign up for Extra Life to help sick and injured kids in hospitals around the US and Canada by playing games!

Roberts Space Industries has been working on Star Citizen since the success of their Kickstarter campaign back in 2012. After five years, the framework of their ambitious space MMO seems to be falling into place. For the better part of the past year, Star Citizen has been sitting in alpha version 2.6, which allowed for limited travel around a space station testing ground that laid out some of the core principles that would be present in the final game. 3.0 drastically expands the scope to include a collection of moons and a planetoid with various outposts, wrecks, and space ports along with more mechanics and opportunities out in the 'verse.
The 3.0 update introduces trade as a functional mechanic that was impossible in 2.6. Players can now purchase goods that are physically stored in their ship and transport them to different locations in to try to corner the market. Of course, that also opens up the opportunity for less scrupulous players to become the fledgling universe's first space pirates. Outside of habitable settlements, where weapons are disabled, anything goes. The final vision of Star Citizen will offer players the chance to become bounty hunters to track and capture or kill lawbreakers, which will hopefully balance out piracy.
Of course, if players are making money then they need something to spend it on. Players can buy new parts for their ships, fancy handheld guns, snazzy new jumpsuits, or new casual clothes. All of that relies on 3.0's new shopping system that allows all of those goods to be purchased for the first time.
The addition of navigable moons represents the first public steps of Star Citizen toward its end goal of a universe full of planets to explore. The moons are each distinct, offering different environments, locations, and opportunities. For the first time, players will be able to set foot on the surface of an alien world and perhaps find ruins worth scavenging or missions to complete. These locations consist of Cellin, the moon of dormant volcanoes, Daymar, a desert-like moon, and Yela, an icy rock floating in the black. A new landing zone has been added on the planetoid of Delamar called Levski, a ramshackle, converted mining colony teased in previous Star Citizen promotional videos.
That doesn't mean 3.0's launch has been smooth. The patch caused many players to struggle with the game's memory requirements, rendering it unplayable for some who had found 2.6 to be manageable. The game is certainly still in an alpha state so, while it shows a lot of promise and has become one of the largest crowdfunding operations in history, take all of its potential with some grains of salt and temper your expectations. 3.0 is not even close to what the final version of Star Citizen will be - you can just see some of the foundations being laid. A lot of optimization still needs to be done.
3.0 stands as the first of Roberts Space Industries' scheduled quarterly releases. From now on, the game will be updated at the end of every quarter of the year with new features, ships, and locations. The latest version comes with a new launcher that allows future updates to be downloaded without downloading the entire game over again, streamlining the updating process for Star Citizen's space-faring fans.
A lot of other minor improvements are included with 3.0 and you can read about them in the full change log on Star Citizen's website.
There's no solid release date for when to expect Star Citizen to exit development, so the final product is likely still years away from completion. That being said, it's pretty amazing to see a project so ambitious to keep making progress. Who knows what surprises Roberts Space Industries has in store once the basic mechanics and universal building blocks are finally settled into place?

Roberts Space Industries has been working on Star Citizen since the success of their Kickstarter campaign back in 2012. After five years, the framework of their ambitious space MMO seems to be falling into place. For the better part of the past year, Star Citizen has been sitting in alpha version 2.6, which allowed for limited travel around a space station testing ground that laid out some of the core principles that would be present in the final game. 3.0 drastically expands the scope to include a collection of moons and a planetoid with various outposts, wrecks, and space ports along with more mechanics and opportunities out in the 'verse.
The 3.0 update introduces trade as a functional mechanic that was impossible in 2.6. Players can now purchase goods that are physically stored in their ship and transport them to different locations in to try to corner the market. Of course, that also opens up the opportunity for less scrupulous players to become the fledgling universe's first space pirates. Outside of habitable settlements, where weapons are disabled, anything goes. The final vision of Star Citizen will offer players the chance to become bounty hunters to track and capture or kill lawbreakers, which will hopefully balance out piracy.
Of course, if players are making money then they need something to spend it on. Players can buy new parts for their ships, fancy handheld guns, snazzy new jumpsuits, or new casual clothes. All of that relies on 3.0's new shopping system that allows all of those goods to be purchased for the first time.
The addition of navigable moons represents the first public steps of Star Citizen toward its end goal of a universe full of planets to explore. The moons are each distinct, offering different environments, locations, and opportunities. For the first time, players will be able to set foot on the surface of an alien world and perhaps find ruins worth scavenging or missions to complete. These locations consist of Cellin, the moon of dormant volcanoes, Daymar, a desert-like moon, and Yela, an icy rock floating in the black. A new landing zone has been added on the planetoid of Delamar called Levski, a ramshackle, converted mining colony teased in previous Star Citizen promotional videos.
That doesn't mean 3.0's launch has been smooth. The patch caused many players to struggle with the game's memory requirements, rendering it unplayable for some who had found 2.6 to be manageable. The game is certainly still in an alpha state so, while it shows a lot of promise and has become one of the largest crowdfunding operations in history, take all of its potential with some grains of salt and temper your expectations. 3.0 is not even close to what the final version of Star Citizen will be - you can just see some of the foundations being laid. A lot of optimization still needs to be done.
3.0 stands as the first of Roberts Space Industries' scheduled quarterly releases. From now on, the game will be updated at the end of every quarter of the year with new features, ships, and locations. The latest version comes with a new launcher that allows future updates to be downloaded without downloading the entire game over again, streamlining the updating process for Star Citizen's space-faring fans.
A lot of other minor improvements are included with 3.0 and you can read about them in the full change log on Star Citizen's website.
There's no solid release date for when to expect Star Citizen to exit development, so the final product is likely still years away from completion. That being said, it's pretty amazing to see a project so ambitious to keep making progress. Who knows what surprises Roberts Space Industries has in store once the basic mechanics and universal building blocks are finally settled into place?
View full article

Last week, Star Citizen held their fourth annual CitizenCon. Included in that event was an unedited, 30-minute demonstration of on foot exploration, various land-based vehicles, FPS combat, and the powerful tools they've created to allow for advanced random planet generation. Oh, and there was a colossal sand worm.
Note: If you want to skip straight to the sand worm, scroll down to the embedded video to see 30 minutes of live Star Citizen gameplay
Chris Roberts, one of the founders of Cloud Imperium Games (CIG), took to the main stage to kick off the two-hour presentation. Roberts started out with a retrospective dedicated to the growing, vibrant fanbase, showcasing the diverse community that has grown up around a game that hasn't even officially released. Over the course of the presentation a revolving assortment of Star Citizen developers cycled through to show the newest developments in the space-faring MMO.
One of these was the Spectrum module. Spectrum will be an application that allows for in-game and out-of-game chat. Players will be able to use the Spectrum application to talk with their friends who play Star Citizen or the other people in their life who don't play the game. Additionally, Spectrum will feature modern forums using a flexible, easily updatable system that hosts classic threads, dedicated Q & A threads, and live threads. Players will also be able to create their own forums for their in-game organizations and hold private conversations with single friends or groups of people. Perhaps most importantly, Spectrum also supports voice lobbies, voice transmission, out-of-game voice chat, and in-game spatialization of voice chat. Spectrum will be launched in alpha before the end of the year as a web application and future updates will integrate it with the game world, embed it within the Star Citizen launcher, and finally release as an app for mobile later next year.
Part of the presentation was dedicated to the sale of new in-game ships, most notably the Polaris class ship, which retails for $750. That's a steep, steep price to ask for an in-game item, especially for a game that remains in development. Probably for that very reason, Chris Roberts took to the stage to clarify CIG's stance on ship purchases:
You probably already know because it's been on Reddit, we sorta pre-released the RSI Polaris corvette and I think yesterday was the best day we've ever had in Star Citizen. And- the one thing I do want to say though is- because I know that sometimes there is a bit of debate and controversy- the, uh, it is your- no one needs to get a big, fancy spaceship or anything else. You spend $40 or $45 and that's all you need, but the way I look at it is, you know, this- getting a corvette or, whatever, a constellation is really just supporting development. That's what it looks like, so, for me, it should only be if someone's saying, 'You know, I really like what these guys are doing. I want to support it, I love the process and I'm there and they're giving me a cool ship in the process.' That's the way it should be nothing more, nothing less. Because you will absolutely be able to earn everything through in-game playing.
The sale of in-game ships has long been one of the big driving forces behind CIG's incredibly successful fundraising efforts. To date, the company has raised almost $130,000,000 and boasts a community of nearly 1.6 million people. Of course, with that much money paid by people who have been waiting years for Star Citizen to be finished, some in the community have cried foul and accused CIG of scamming the community by selling in-game models of ships for a game that will never be finished. Despite the small number of vocally disgruntled backers, CIG genuinely seems to be creating something interesting, both when it comes to fundraising and when it comes to the game that they have steadily been unveiling over the years.
The presentation gave an important update on the state of Squadron 42, the big budget single-player campaign of Star Citizen. Though initially announced in 2012, Squadron 42 has become a huge affair. It boasts a cast that includes the likes of Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Andy Serkis, John Rhys Davies, and a number of other recognizable actors and actresses that fill out a cast that has over 340 speaking roles, most of which make use of advanced facial scanning and motion capture technology. The action takes place throughout 28 chapters filled with over 60 missions. The campaign features 40 unique ship designs that range in size from single-pilot fighters to hulking dreadnoughts. The campaign now encompasses both ship-to-ship space combat and FPS gameplay that will range from stealth missions to head-on assaults. To avoid even more feature creep, Squadron 42 has now been feature locked and faces a small stable of AI and animation hurdles to overcome before release. However, the team plans on bringing one mission to shipping quality in the near future to give the world a taste of what the campaign will be like.
Star Marine, the FPS module, will be coming in the next major update along with a number of additions for the other Star Citizen modules. Two locations will be available: Station Damien, a 4v4 map, and Echo Eleven, a 12v12 map. Each map can be played in either traditional deathmatch or control modes. New armor, weapons, and grenades will be added to Star Citizen as well as a new tactical visor, looting system, and achievements.
Chris Roberts then began walking through CIG's road map for future updates to Star Citizen. Keep in mind that CIG tends to have a rather rosy view of when things might be done, so some of these features might be further out in the future than we might like to believe, but it is difficult not to be excited at the possibilities hinted at by the features.
CIG plans for the 3.0 update to be the launch of Star Citizen's foundational gameplay systems. It will include support for the basic professions like trading, transport, piracy, smuggling, mercenary, and bounty hunter. Most excitingly, 3.0 will implement the Planetary V2 system that Roberts revealed later in the presentation. 3.1 will include systems for mining, refining, and material processing in-game. Additionally, the update is planned to include support for escort missions, new solar system locations, the ability to pull people out of quantum travel in deep space ambushes, and refueling systems. Roberts walked back promises from earlier in the year that CIG would be putting these updates out every month following the release of 3.0 saying that a timeline of every 2-3 months was more realistic. The 3.2 update will include the ability to salvage and dive into covert mercenary operations. New ships and solar system locations will be available in 3.2, too. Farming and rescue operations will become available in the 3.3 update, a reveal met with thunderous applause.
Eventually, the 4.0 update will open up the galaxy with jump points, allowing players to travel to multiple star systems to discover and explore new worlds. CIG has decided to stay silent on the number of star systems that will be available when 4.0 launches as the firm number will depend on how quickly they can finish the work coming down the pipeline for other parts of their massive game. Players will also gain the ability to research and develop new items and technology. Roberts hopes for the game to reach 4.0 before the end of 2017, though he would not commit to any solid date.
Roberts then moved on to show off their new tech for procedural planet generation. CIG's tech seamlessly supports spherical planetary terrain on a planetary scale that generates at run time. There is an unrestricted view distance - the horizon is the actual horizon of the planet. The procedural generation does a lot of the work, but artists will be putting unique, interesting touches to each planet, guiding their generation and their noteworthy features. This same approach applies to the content of each planet. While some creatures and AI controlled raiders might be spawned by the procedural generation of the planet, developers will also step in to handcraft missions and adventures for players that have engaging narratives and distinct elements. Roberts then stepped aside to unveil the tech in a live demonstration, which you can view below, complete with an FPS counter in the upper right corner of the screen.
Following the demonstration, CIG began explaining how they achieved the results of their new procedural generation system for planets. Star Citizen operates using a heavily edited and altered version of the CryEngine. CIG stepped into their game editor to literally fly around a planet to demonstrate the scale and power of what they've achieved. Each planet is created out of thousands of "ecosystem chunks" that blend together, creating unique combinations of planets that the devs can then make more unique with personal touches. To prove that the live demo wasn't using sky boxes, the devs simply created a new part of the planet in-editor on stage, then proceeded to take off to one of the planets in the sky, seamlessly transitioning between worlds.
Star Citizen might still be a very long way from being finished, but it seems to be shaping up to be an impressive title for people who haven't yet backed it to keep on their radars. There's a lot of amazing technology behind it and it seems to be on track to pick up they shattered hopes and dreams of those who rallied behind No Man's Sky. Here we have another game utilizing procedural planet generation and promising space-faring MMO action and exploration, but it might actually be able to deliver on the high expectations it has fostered over the past four years of development. You can watch the full presentation on Star Citizen's YouTube channel.
There are no hard release dates for any part of Star Citizen, but many speculate that Squadron 42 might release sometime during the first half of 2017 and Roberts himself gave an optimistic, though flexible, estimate that Star Citizen 4.0 will be live by the end of 2017.

Last week, Star Citizen held their fourth annual CitizenCon. Included in that event was an unedited, 30-minute demonstration of on foot exploration, various land-based vehicles, FPS combat, and the powerful tools they've created to allow for advanced random planet generation. Oh, and there was a colossal sand worm.
Note: If you want to skip straight to the sand worm, scroll down to the embedded video to see 30 minutes of live Star Citizen gameplay
Chris Roberts, one of the founders of Cloud Imperium Games (CIG), took to the main stage to kick off the two-hour presentation. Roberts started out with a retrospective dedicated to the growing, vibrant fanbase, showcasing the diverse community that has grown up around a game that hasn't even officially released. Over the course of the presentation a revolving assortment of Star Citizen developers cycled through to show the newest developments in the space-faring MMO.
One of these was the Spectrum module. Spectrum will be an application that allows for in-game and out-of-game chat. Players will be able to use the Spectrum application to talk with their friends who play Star Citizen or the other people in their life who don't play the game. Additionally, Spectrum will feature modern forums using a flexible, easily updatable system that hosts classic threads, dedicated Q & A threads, and live threads. Players will also be able to create their own forums for their in-game organizations and hold private conversations with single friends or groups of people. Perhaps most importantly, Spectrum also supports voice lobbies, voice transmission, out-of-game voice chat, and in-game spatialization of voice chat. Spectrum will be launched in alpha before the end of the year as a web application and future updates will integrate it with the game world, embed it within the Star Citizen launcher, and finally release as an app for mobile later next year.
Part of the presentation was dedicated to the sale of new in-game ships, most notably the Polaris class ship, which retails for $750. That's a steep, steep price to ask for an in-game item, especially for a game that remains in development. Probably for that very reason, Chris Roberts took to the stage to clarify CIG's stance on ship purchases:
You probably already know because it's been on Reddit, we sorta pre-released the RSI Polaris corvette and I think yesterday was the best day we've ever had in Star Citizen. And- the one thing I do want to say though is- because I know that sometimes there is a bit of debate and controversy- the, uh, it is your- no one needs to get a big, fancy spaceship or anything else. You spend $40 or $45 and that's all you need, but the way I look at it is, you know, this- getting a corvette or, whatever, a constellation is really just supporting development. That's what it looks like, so, for me, it should only be if someone's saying, 'You know, I really like what these guys are doing. I want to support it, I love the process and I'm there and they're giving me a cool ship in the process.' That's the way it should be nothing more, nothing less. Because you will absolutely be able to earn everything through in-game playing.
The sale of in-game ships has long been one of the big driving forces behind CIG's incredibly successful fundraising efforts. To date, the company has raised almost $130,000,000 and boasts a community of nearly 1.6 million people. Of course, with that much money paid by people who have been waiting years for Star Citizen to be finished, some in the community have cried foul and accused CIG of scamming the community by selling in-game models of ships for a game that will never be finished. Despite the small number of vocally disgruntled backers, CIG genuinely seems to be creating something interesting, both when it comes to fundraising and when it comes to the game that they have steadily been unveiling over the years.
The presentation gave an important update on the state of Squadron 42, the big budget single-player campaign of Star Citizen. Though initially announced in 2012, Squadron 42 has become a huge affair. It boasts a cast that includes the likes of Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Andy Serkis, John Rhys Davies, and a number of other recognizable actors and actresses that fill out a cast that has over 340 speaking roles, most of which make use of advanced facial scanning and motion capture technology. The action takes place throughout 28 chapters filled with over 60 missions. The campaign features 40 unique ship designs that range in size from single-pilot fighters to hulking dreadnoughts. The campaign now encompasses both ship-to-ship space combat and FPS gameplay that will range from stealth missions to head-on assaults. To avoid even more feature creep, Squadron 42 has now been feature locked and faces a small stable of AI and animation hurdles to overcome before release. However, the team plans on bringing one mission to shipping quality in the near future to give the world a taste of what the campaign will be like.
Star Marine, the FPS module, will be coming in the next major update along with a number of additions for the other Star Citizen modules. Two locations will be available: Station Damien, a 4v4 map, and Echo Eleven, a 12v12 map. Each map can be played in either traditional deathmatch or control modes. New armor, weapons, and grenades will be added to Star Citizen as well as a new tactical visor, looting system, and achievements.
Chris Roberts then began walking through CIG's road map for future updates to Star Citizen. Keep in mind that CIG tends to have a rather rosy view of when things might be done, so some of these features might be further out in the future than we might like to believe, but it is difficult not to be excited at the possibilities hinted at by the features.
CIG plans for the 3.0 update to be the launch of Star Citizen's foundational gameplay systems. It will include support for the basic professions like trading, transport, piracy, smuggling, mercenary, and bounty hunter. Most excitingly, 3.0 will implement the Planetary V2 system that Roberts revealed later in the presentation. 3.1 will include systems for mining, refining, and material processing in-game. Additionally, the update is planned to include support for escort missions, new solar system locations, the ability to pull people out of quantum travel in deep space ambushes, and refueling systems. Roberts walked back promises from earlier in the year that CIG would be putting these updates out every month following the release of 3.0 saying that a timeline of every 2-3 months was more realistic. The 3.2 update will include the ability to salvage and dive into covert mercenary operations. New ships and solar system locations will be available in 3.2, too. Farming and rescue operations will become available in the 3.3 update, a reveal met with thunderous applause.
Eventually, the 4.0 update will open up the galaxy with jump points, allowing players to travel to multiple star systems to discover and explore new worlds. CIG has decided to stay silent on the number of star systems that will be available when 4.0 launches as the firm number will depend on how quickly they can finish the work coming down the pipeline for other parts of their massive game. Players will also gain the ability to research and develop new items and technology. Roberts hopes for the game to reach 4.0 before the end of 2017, though he would not commit to any solid date.
Roberts then moved on to show off their new tech for procedural planet generation. CIG's tech seamlessly supports spherical planetary terrain on a planetary scale that generates at run time. There is an unrestricted view distance - the horizon is the actual horizon of the planet. The procedural generation does a lot of the work, but artists will be putting unique, interesting touches to each planet, guiding their generation and their noteworthy features. This same approach applies to the content of each planet. While some creatures and AI controlled raiders might be spawned by the procedural generation of the planet, developers will also step in to handcraft missions and adventures for players that have engaging narratives and distinct elements. Roberts then stepped aside to unveil the tech in a live demonstration, which you can view below, complete with an FPS counter in the upper right corner of the screen.
Following the demonstration, CIG began explaining how they achieved the results of their new procedural generation system for planets. Star Citizen operates using a heavily edited and altered version of the CryEngine. CIG stepped into their game editor to literally fly around a planet to demonstrate the scale and power of what they've achieved. Each planet is created out of thousands of "ecosystem chunks" that blend together, creating unique combinations of planets that the devs can then make more unique with personal touches. To prove that the live demo wasn't using sky boxes, the devs simply created a new part of the planet in-editor on stage, then proceeded to take off to one of the planets in the sky, seamlessly transitioning between worlds.
Star Citizen might still be a very long way from being finished, but it seems to be shaping up to be an impressive title for people who haven't yet backed it to keep on their radars. There's a lot of amazing technology behind it and it seems to be on track to pick up they shattered hopes and dreams of those who rallied behind No Man's Sky. Here we have another game utilizing procedural planet generation and promising space-faring MMO action and exploration, but it might actually be able to deliver on the high expectations it has fostered over the past four years of development. You can watch the full presentation on Star Citizen's YouTube channel.
There are no hard release dates for any part of Star Citizen, but many speculate that Squadron 42 might release sometime during the first half of 2017 and Roberts himself gave an optimistic, though flexible, estimate that Star Citizen 4.0 will be live by the end of 2017.
View full article

Star Citizen's director of game operations, Jeremy Masker, responding to questions on the game's official forums, stated that the expressed goal of a 30-40GB client was unrealistic and that fans should expect a client download around 100gb.
On top of that, patching could prove to be a nightmare for players with slow internet connections. "Each patch has 100s of assets, each of these assets are at times 200mb, this leads to 2-6gb patches, and if we end up doing a file type re-factor and have to re-download 30-40% of the assets on the hard-drive, then the patch will be 14-20gb," said Masker.
Not only are we looking at a potential client that could be over 100gb, but patches could range from 2gb-20gb in size. That is a daunting prospect for a lot of people, even those with relatively fast internet speeds.
Will this have a chilling effect on Star Citizen's appeal? What do you think?

Star Citizen's director of game operations, Jeremy Masker, responding to questions on the game's official forums, stated that the expressed goal of a 30-40GB client was unrealistic and that fans should expect a client download around 100gb.
On top of that, patching could prove to be a nightmare for players with slow internet connections. "Each patch has 100s of assets, each of these assets are at times 200mb, this leads to 2-6gb patches, and if we end up doing a file type re-factor and have to re-download 30-40% of the assets on the hard-drive, then the patch will be 14-20gb," said Masker.
Not only are we looking at a potential client that could be over 100gb, but patches could range from 2gb-20gb in size. That is a daunting prospect for a lot of people, even those with relatively fast internet speeds.
Will this have a chilling effect on Star Citizen's appeal? What do you think?
View full article

Star Citizen, the crowdfunding juggernaut, continues its mindbogglingly complex development. While the Hangar and Arena modules have been released to backers, Cloud Imperium Games revealed their next big addition to their growing system of interconnected gameplay modules. Soon supporters could be getting their boots on the ground.
On the heels of an impressive demonstration of their persistent universe, Cloud Imperium unveiled live gameplay showing how FPS combat will work in the completed game. It begins as a traditional shooter, but then things get a bit crazy when one of the players decides to deactivate the artificial gravity.
Honestly, I am really curious to see what the final build of Star Citizen is like. Every time I hear about it or check on its progress it has made more money and the scope seems to have been expanded. Even several months ago there were over 200 people working on Star Citizen. Several different studios are working on the modules that will eventually come together. This is one of the most fascinating game development processes that has been made mostly public. I hope that it will be able to deliver on its immense promises and doesn't collapse under its aspirations.

Star Citizen, the crowdfunding juggernaut, continues its mindbogglingly complex development. While the Hangar and Arena modules have been released to backers, Cloud Imperium Games revealed their next big addition to their growing system of interconnected gameplay modules. Soon supporters could be getting their boots on the ground.
On the heels of an impressive demonstration of their persistent universe, Cloud Imperium unveiled live gameplay showing how FPS combat will work in the completed game. It begins as a traditional shooter, but then things get a bit crazy when one of the players decides to deactivate the artificial gravity.
Honestly, I am really curious to see what the final build of Star Citizen is like. Every time I hear about it or check on its progress it has made more money and the scope seems to have been expanded. Even several months ago there were over 200 people working on Star Citizen. Several different studios are working on the modules that will eventually come together. This is one of the most fascinating game development processes that has been made mostly public. I hope that it will be able to deliver on its immense promises and doesn't collapse under its aspirations.
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Up until this point, Star Citizen has basically been known as that one crowdsourced game that raised over $40 million for its development. Cloud Imperium Games took the opportunity at PAX East to show off where all that money went, and it is pretty impressive.
Star Citizen is being released in separate pieces called modules. The live demo showed off many interesting aspects of the gameplay in the first module which introduces refined space sim combat. Interesting features like the implementation of G-forces that pile up and can cause the player character to black out if too many maneuvers are taken too quickly. Various ship components can be damaged and impair ship performance.
There are still a bit of time to secure access to the alpha release of Star Citizen. To purchase early access, head over to the store on the Star Citizen website.
View full article

Up until this point, Star Citizen has basically been known as that one crowdsourced game that raised over $40 million for its development. Cloud Imperium Games took the opportunity at PAX East to show off where all that money went, and it is pretty impressive.
Star Citizen is being released in separate pieces called modules. The live demo showed off many interesting aspects of the gameplay in the first module which introduces refined space sim combat. Interesting features like the implementation of G-forces that pile up and can cause the player character to black out if too many maneuvers are taken too quickly. Various ship components can be damaged and impair ship performance.
There are still a bit of time to secure access to the alpha release of Star Citizen. To purchase early access, head over to the store on the Star Citizen website.